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Technol Rep Tohoku Univ: GENERATION OF ANTI-GRAVITY ...

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APPENDIX VI<br />

WEIGHT-MASS ANOMALY<br />

There is a great need for a precise experimental determination of the<br />

weight to mass ratio of protons or electrons. Since the ratio for a proton<br />

plus an electron is known already, the determination of the ratio for either<br />

particle is sufficient. The difficulty of a direct determination of the<br />

gravitational deflection of a charged particle in an experiment similar to the<br />

neutron or neutral atom experiment is due to electrical forces being much<br />

greater than gravitational field forces. Thus stray electrons or ions which<br />

are always present on the walls of an apparatus can exert sufficient force<br />

to completely mask the gravitational force. Even if the surface charges are<br />

neglected, image charges of the electron beam itself and self-repulsion in<br />

the beam may obscure at the gravitational deflection. An additional<br />

problem is the earth's magnetic field. Electrons of even a few volts energy<br />

will feel a force due to the earth's field a thousand billion times larger than<br />

the gravitational deflection. This last problem is avoided in a static<br />

measurement of the ratio such as a weighing of ionized matter. However,<br />

this last method has the additional difficulty of requiring a high proportion<br />

of ionized to unionized matter in the sample being weighed. Of course all<br />

these problems can be resolved to some extent but it is questionable if an<br />

experiment of either of the above types can be designed in which all the<br />

adverse effects can simultaneously be sufficiently minimized. Probably a<br />

completely new type of experiment will have to be devised to measure the<br />

weight to mass ratio of the proton or electron. Such a measurement may<br />

detect a deviation from the law of constant weight to mass ratio. If such an<br />

anomaly can be shown to exist, there is the possibility of finding a material<br />

which would be acted upon in an unusual manner in a gravitational field.<br />

Martin L. Perl*<br />

"Editor's Note: Martin L. Perl is the recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in<br />

physics.<br />

72

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